A number of newspapers and news sources (such as IndieWire, DailyMail) reported that French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet accused Guillermo del Toro of copying one of his scenes from his movie “Delicatessen” (1991) for del Toro’s latest film “The Shape of Water“. Moreover, Jeunet accused del Toro of copying the character of Amelie from “Amelie” (2001) for “The Shape of Water“. In particular, there is a scene in Jeunet’s movie “Delicatessen” where Louison (Pinon) and Plusse (Viard) appear “dancing” to music while sitting on a bed. In “The Shape of Water“, the characters played by Hawkins and Jenkins also perform a step-dance while sitting on a sofa. As for “Amelie“, the French director claims that the concepts of a shy and naive girl, a painter and an apartment were lifted off straight from “Amelie” to make “The Shape of Water“. The Mexican director defended himself by saying that it was Terry Gilliam who influenced both Jeunet and himself.

After making his “Black Swan” (2010) out of Satoshi Kon’s “Perfect Blue” (1997) (see my article on the topic here), Darren Aronofsky now seems to make his new film “Mother!” out of everyone’s much beloved horror classic “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968). The phrases “paying homage” and “drawing inspiration” really camouflage the lack of artistic ideas and originality, and it is a pity. More than a pity. If Aronofsky’s shameful “Perfect Blue/Black Swan” creation showed a deplorable disregard for another form of art, his now seemingly hybrid “Rosemary’s Baby/Mother!” monster confirms that there is really nothing sacred left when it comes to making new films in the 21st century. And, even if Aronofsky’s new film “Mother!” will contain virtually nothing in common/ no similarities with Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby“, the new poster to his film “Mother!” is really a step too far, and, surely, demonstrates the lack of basic artistic respect for the previous work of art. How hard is it really to make one’s own movie poster and restrain oneself from dragging the fans of Polanski’s masterpiece into your own money-making machine?

This is a review of “Beauty and the Beast” (2017) by Dan Callahan published here. As for me, I cannot agree more.

“The 1991 Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast” was perhaps the best and most melodic hit the studio had during its renaissance period for animated features, and it in turn spawned a long-running stage musical. This new mainly live-action Disney version of the often-told story directed by Bill Condon feels largely perfunctory. Where it flounders most is on the miscasting of several crucial roles. Read more of this post

The following news article is posted on the Guardian Film’s online page:

“La La Land has taken the top honour at the Toronto film festival. The Los Angeles-set musical world premiered on the opening night film of the Venice film festival and screened in Telluride, before debuting in Toronto. The movie – Damien Chazelle’s third – has attracted raves from reviewers, with especial praise for Emma Stone’s performance as a struggling actor, whose relationship to her jazz pianist boyfriend (Ryan Gosling) becomes strained when his career begins to overtake hers. Stone was named best actress at last Saturday’s Venice film festival awards.Read more of this post

“South Africans will be able to watch the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Africa’a first 4DX cinema. The seventh instalment of the hugely popular franchise will be the opening title at Nu Metro at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront 4DX creator ACJ 4DPLEX partnered with Nu Metro Cinemas this year to bring the ground-breaking 4D cinema technology for feature films to South Africa. 4DX uses vibration, motion, water, wind, lightning, scents, and more to provide a truly immersive experience, and is available in [215 auditoriums in 35 countries]. The company aims to reach 300 auditoriums by the first half of 2016.”

Increased popularity of these cinemas cannot be overstated – this November 4DX representatives said that “4DX immersive cinematic experience has reached its own record with 10M moviegoers and $150M at worldwide turnstiles across the first 10 months of 2015.”

I am surprised how popular 4DX cinemas are becoming, considering their ordinary screens (come on, they are smaller than IMAX), and sometimes unpleasant and annoying effects. The fact is also they can only cater for certain types of movies, such as action-based sequences. Whether they are truly THE future of cinematic experience remains to be seen, but my guess is that the cinemas of the future will definitely involve some kind of VR (virtual reality) experience, see dated, but interesting articlehere.

The Guardian News: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Julia Roberts in first trailer for “Secret in Their Eyes” remake

“A star-studded remake of the Oscar-winning Argentinian thriller, also starring Nicole Kidman, has Roberts out for revenge against the man who killed her daughter. Given the near universal acclaim that met Juan José Campanella’s 2009 thriller “The Secret in Their Eyes”, initial reaction to news of a remake was less than enthused. But with a stellar cast and Billy Ray, the director of Shattered Glass and Breach, on board, it might not be the disaster that many expected. The first trailer for the remake has landed and has Chiwetel Ejiofor and Julia Roberts as FBI investigators working with their DA supervisor, played by Nicole Kidman. But after the daughter of Roberts’ character gets killed, their lives are torn apart. Like the original, there’s a narrative that alternates between past and present, 13 years after the murder, as the three still try to find justice.

Tom Hanks will reprise his role as Robert Langdon for the film version of Dan Brown’s latest bestseller, Inferno, due to be released in December 2015.

By Alice Vincent, Entertainment writer, online (17 July 2013)

Dan Brown’s Inferno was only released in May, but already plans for a movie version of the book are shaping up.

Tom Hanks will reprise the role of Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist and main character of Dan Brown’s series of bestselling books. The Inferno film will be directed by Ron Howard, the director of 2006’s The Da Vinci Code and its sequel, Angels and Demons (2009). It is expected that the film will be released in December 2015, according to film industry website Deadline.